Episodes of Lake Marathon: 06 Lingambudhi Lake

 

Hi there! Welcome to 'What's around us to explore' and this is my 6th Lake from the 'Episodes of Lake Marathon'. After covering 4 most popular lakes of Mysuru, its time for me to pay a visit to one of the largest and the oldest lake 'Lingambudhi lake'. It is found in the village named Lingambudhi of Mysuru, in which I have some of my teenage memories. During my college days, me and my friends used to bunk classes and used to visit the lake for watching birds, we used to land up counting some seven sisters and some leaf birds. During summer the lake used to be completely dry and cattle used to graze. 

But now the things have changed. The lake has a beautiful park now and has been a popular place in the city for morning/evening walks, bird watching, nature walks, butterfly watching and even a new botanical garden has been set up in the premises. On September 2022, during Dasara season, the botanical garden was open for public. Better late than never, now that I am here and could at least explore its richness. 

Sunset at Lingambudhi lake from watch tower

Started my journey from the back gate, and it was not intentional but blindly followed google maps 😃 There is a small open abandoned temple at the back gate, in our college days we used to sit inside that and view the lake. But now, I visited during November 2022 and the lake was overflowing. The steps were submerged and I could hardly stand there for more than 5 mins there. I could get some glimpses of the lake with few birds standing quite far from me. I captured as many pics I could and left disappointed. 

Submerged tower of Lingambudhi lake

 

Lake view from the abandoned temple 

From the abandoned temple, I could see a grey Herons, Egrets and couple of cormorants from a far off distance. Then I left disappointed. 

Flora of Lingambudhi, spotted in the rear entrace

 

Next to the rear entry, there was another entrance which lead me to the banks of the lake. Found this anthill on the way. 

There I found some of the rarest and unfamiliar birds, one such was the bird found in the pic below. Possibly a species of coot* (to be confirmed). 

Ashy drongo (Picture not clear as it was hidden in the bushes) 

Couple of White breasted kingfishers, as usual I couldn't capture a good still image of this bird. Yet I will keep trying until I succeed.  

White breasted kingfisher

Something is better than nothing, at least I found 3 bird species and left the place. Then as I kept driving near the industrial areas, I could still see the lake, but in one of the view my eyes caught the scene which I was longing for, 

 

A flock of Ducks and Coots swimming on the lake. I immediately turned on my camera and started taking some pics, and this is how I started my lake marathon in Lingambudhi lake! 

Spot billed duck 

Cormorant in its nest with chicks

Common Coot 

 

A pair of black winged stilt; Previously, I had spotted them in Bogadi lake as well. 

 

Red wattled lapwing (left) and Purple Moorhen (Right) 

 

Egrets and cormorants from the far off distance. 

So, now that I have seen enough bird population in this lake, I decided I have to explore more and cannot give up. Rerouted my maps towards Lingambudhi front gate and restarted my lake marathon journey and with a new hope! 

This time I was really not disappointed, entered the lake park and it was loaded with bamboo forest. Parts of the lake park is still left wild and its a bit scary to walk during the evening time. First I saw these 2 spot billed pelicans, I couldn't take the pictures at that moment as I was too far from the view. 

 

 

Spot billed pelican

Then I found this watch tower which made my work easy. Captured one of the beautiful sunset pics. 

Sunset; Lingambudhi lake 

Some darters were perching on the branches 

 

This was the most astonishing view, thousands of cormorants roosted on the tree top. 

 

Spot billed ducks marching like a parade 

Pond heron. 

Other than these, I saw some fantails perching on the fences of the lake. Due to time constraints I couldn't take any pics of them. Next time I will be revisiting this lake and try to explore the botanical garden and other conserved areas of this lake. So, that's it in today's episodes of Lake Marathon, next I will be visiting Hadinaru Lake of Nanjangud Mysuru, heard we can site the most talk of the town bird "Bar headed geese". Till then keep reading what's around us to explore, adios!